Small Business Tip: Spend Money on Marketing!

If you’re feeling a little hesitant about spending money in marketing your business just remember the cliché “you gotta spend money to make money”.

If you don’t know how much to spend for marketing, take a look at your previous year’s profit (NET) and take 10-20% of that amount and spend it on marketing in the present year. So, if last year, you made $50,000, spend $5,000 – $10,000 on marketing this year. It’s a good rule to follow.

Let’s say you want to spend $5k that means you’re going to be spending $416, which is not a lot of money but something is better than nothing. Please don’t spend that on a grainy picture of your store on a black and white ad on a newspaper that no one reads. There’s a better way to spend your low budget dollars.

Here are a few ways you should consider:

1. Hire a Social Media Expert to help you gain more likes to broaden your facebook reach.
2. Hire a graphic designer to design a campaign from flyers to business cards to loyalty cards.
3. Invest in a mass email service online.
4. Reward your shoppers with giveaways – reusable tote bags that have your logo and info – this is free advertising for you every time they use your bag.
5. Plan a special event that will bring you new customers.

In case you are a little confuse on the differences between Marketing, Advertising, PR, Promotion, Social Media etc… Here is a simple graphic I made to show you my version of the new generation Markeing Elements.

Don’t get too caught up with the technicalities. The most important thing is that you open your mind to marketing and decide what results you want before you invest your money and watch your business grow.